Catherine G Lucas
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Life Crisis Free Sample
    • Alcohol Recovery Free Sample
    • Articles
  • Free Mindfulness
  • Events
    • UK
    • Europe
    • United States
    • Previous
  • Support
    • What is Spiritual Crisis?
    • Mindfulness Mentoring
    • Spiritual Crisis Support
  • Interviews
    • Other Audios
  • My YouTube
  • Contact
    • Meet Catherine
    • Links
    • Privacy Policy

World Suicide Prevention Day: From Breakdown to Breakthrough

10/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you’re looking for a more holistic take on depression, you’ve come to the right place. Transpersonal psychology talks more in terms of a dark night of the soul. It is one of the most perilous forms psychospiritual crisis can take because it carries the risk of suicide. Tragically, anyone going through spiritual emergence(y) can end up taking their own life if the spiritual aspect of their breakdown isn’t recognised, valued and supported. When someone is so vulnerable, pathologising their experience as nothing but illness can push them even deeper into despair. It can literally prove fatal.

This is why so many of us are working to raise awareness and understanding of the highly complex relationship between mental health and spirituality. It is why charities around the world like the UK Spiritual Crisis Network (SCN) and the Canadian Spiritual Emergence Service (SES) exist – to offer support to those who need it.

Our message is simple: please reach out for support; you are not alone; many others have been through these crises and come out the other side. Psychospiritual crisis can be an excruciating process to go through – I know, I’ve been through it. But with the right support it can lead to considerable healing and growth.

There are lots of free resources on the UK SCN website, the Canadian SES, the Australian and American Spiritual Emergence Networks and on my website here. There are also online communities like the Shades of Awakening FB page and Kimberley Jones’ community and some excellent books by authors such as Christina and Stanislav Grof, Emma Bragdon, consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Razzaque (Breaking Down is Waking Up) and myself (In Case of Spiritual Emergency: Moving Successfully Through Your Awakening). Memoirs of those who’ve come through it include Katie Mottram’s Mend the Gap. Upcoming there is also a powerful documentary film, CrazyWise and a novel by Emma Goude, My Beautiful Psychosis.

Such intense transformational crises are far more common than people realise. When understood, validated and supported they offer us the potential to move beyond our wounding, beyond our limited conception of ourselves.

Please help those in crisis find the support they need; please share this post. Together we can make a difference! Thank you.


0 Comments

Return from the Wilderness

15/6/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureHope Hospital, Mundesley, Norfolk
I’m just back from the wilds of Mundesley, with its beautiful unspoilt Norfolk coast. You’re going to be hearing a lot about Mundesley. The aptly named new Hope Hospital there has quite literally been born out of one person’s experience of spiritual emergency. The aim is to help people move through crises with the kind of support the founder would have liked for himself. And there are other developments linked to the hospital too, which are still being birthed.

I’m also back from the wilderness in the sense that my trip has resulted in a massive inner shift for me. I was speaking at a landmark conference, the first ever to be held at the new Hope Hospital and, as Mark Wentworth, the director, said when he welcomed us all: 'How fitting that the Spiritual Crisis Network conference should be the first.'

Picture
Although I’ve been working on a new book I’ve had a sense of feeling a bit lost and confused as to my direction, something of an inner struggle going on, not to mention how that has impacted on my physical energy levels. 

Now, after the conference, that feels more like treading water, that I was waiting for something to happen and that something was the conference. It was a powerful coming together of people from all over the world; the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Bosnia, Poland, Hungary and, of course, the UK. The director of the newly formed Grof Foundation, Kenneth Sloan was there, as was Ted Esser, the director of the re-birthed American Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN) – re-birthed in that the new Grof Foundation has taken it under its wing and is now actively supporting it. And that was just the audience! You can see the line up of speakers here. 

I confess I was slightly dreading speaking simply because I was last on, at the end of a very packed and tight day’s schedule. Somehow I had to keep my energy levels up and look after myself well enough all day long to give a potentially flagging and tired audience my best. The reality, though, was that everyone was so inspired by the whole day that it couldn’t have been easier. My personal triumph was that I did a really good job of looking after myself, going off to lie on the grass in the sun whenever I needed a break. 

It’s too soon to say how the impact of the day will unfold for us all, the other speakers, the participants, the conference organiser, the wonderful Katie Mottram, and the hospital team. All I know at this stage is that it will be huge. For us all. And when I land, you’ll be hearing more from me...

0 Comments

    Author

    Author of four books on the holistic, spiritual approach to mental health, Mindfulness Trainer, Founder, UK Spiritual Crisis Network.

    Follow this blog here:

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    April 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alcohol
    Alcoholic Dad
    Alcoholic Father
    Amazon
    America
    Amma
    Avaaz
    Awakening Zone
    Ayahuasca
    Barbara Marx Hubbard
    Book Contract
    Book Launch
    Book Tour
    Caduceus
    Carl Jung
    Catalyst
    Catherine G Lucas
    Cbs Radio Washington
    Coast To Coast
    Community Radio
    Conscious Life Expo
    Coping
    Cosmic Consciousness
    Daily Life
    Dark Night Of The Soul
    David Shayler. Carl Jung
    Death Row
    Depression
    Desert Island Discs
    Dream
    Dr Russell Razzaque
    Ego Inflation
    Elaine Aron
    Emma Bragdon
    Emma Goude
    Eva Cassidy
    Evolution
    Experiencer
    Findhorn Press
    Gayatri Mantra
    George Noory
    Giving Birth
    Global Awakening Of Consciousness
    Global Shift
    Global Spiritual Emergency
    Global Transition
    Grof Foundation
    Hero
    Hero's Journey
    Highly Sensitive Person
    Hope Hospital
    In Case Of Spiritual Emergency
    Intention Experiment
    International Webinar
    Japan
    Kaia Nightingale
    Katie Mottram
    Kenneth Sloan
    Kimberley Jones
    Kiwi Kickstart
    Labour
    Lovers
    Mandalas
    Manuscript
    Meditation
    Mental Health
    Mercedes Sosa
    Mindfulness
    Mindfulness For Creative Writing
    Mindfulness For Lovers
    Mindfulness Poetry
    Mindfulness Practice
    Miscarriage Of Justice
    Momentous Times
    Mundesley
    Near-death Experience
    Nhs
    Paul Levy
    Portland In Oregon
    Psychospiritual Crisis
    Radio Interview
    Rebirth
    Recovery
    Research
    Retreat
    Sandie Sedgbeer
    SEN
    Sensitivity
    Shades Of Awakening
    Shaman
    Shamanic Healing
    Sparks!
    Spirit Attachment
    Spiritual Care
    Spiritual Crisis Network
    Spiritual Emergence Network
    Spiritual Emergence Service
    Spiritual Emergence Service Canada
    Spiritual Emergency
    Spiritual Practice
    Stanislav Grof
    Steve Taylor
    Stress
    Suicide
    Suicide Prevention
    Support
    Swithin Fry
    Tantra
    Tantric Sex
    Ted Esser
    Television Interview
    The Red Book
    The Wakeup
    Training
    Transformation Through Turmoil
    Tsunami
    Usa
    Us Book Tour
    Valentine's Day
    Vancouver
    Villa Boccella
    Virtual Light Show
    World Mental Health Day
    World Suicide Prevention Day
    Writing Retreat

© Copyright Catherine G Lucas 2016. All Rights Reserved.
Banner photo: Alex Caminada • Website tuition: Graham Boston
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Life Crisis Free Sample
    • Alcohol Recovery Free Sample
    • Articles
  • Free Mindfulness
  • Events
    • UK
    • Europe
    • United States
    • Previous
  • Support
    • What is Spiritual Crisis?
    • Mindfulness Mentoring
    • Spiritual Crisis Support
  • Interviews
    • Other Audios
  • My YouTube
  • Contact
    • Meet Catherine
    • Links
    • Privacy Policy